|
|
 |
Outstanding Young Alumni Award 2005The College of Arts & Sciences Alumni Association established the Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 2005 as a way to recognize the accomplishments of young alumni under the age of 35.
Just five years after graduating from IU with a degree in Theater and Drama, Nicole Parker, has already achieved the holy grail of improv comedy – a place on one of television’s most popular sketch comedy shows, MADtv. Raised in Irvine, California, Parker came to IU Bloomington for its excellent programs in Theater and Voice, as well as for its small-town flavor. While at IU she studied for a career in musical theater, but spent her extracurricular time on stage with the improve comedy group Full Frontal Comedy. This hobby become a career soon after her graduation, when she beat out hundreds of other actors for a job with Boom Chicago, an improve sketch comedy theatre in Amsterdam. After two and a half years with Boom Chicago, Parker moved to New York and co-founded the theater company Waterwell Productions with several friends from IU. Only moths later, though, she returned to sketch comedy as a cast member on the Fox network’s popular program MADtv. Now in her third season on the show, Parker has played a variety of characters, frequently employing her voice training to do impressions of celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres, Jessica Simpson, Celine Dion, and Britney Spears. Future endeavors for Parker may include remaining in Hollywood to try her hand at the big screen or returning to New York for further collaborations with Waterwell Productions. |
Nicole Parker